The Passing of Time
by Bee Stella
Summary: Kagome and Inuyasha deal with the aftermath of losing one another. Canon divergence: alternate ending.
1. Chapter 1

Time passed so slowly now. Which was utterly ridiculous considering time is a fixed, quantifiable thing. When she and Inuyasha first re-appeared with the well, things happened so fast she could barely remember the look on his face as he disappeared. The moments before she lost him were over in an instant.

In the days after that, she felt every single second. She remembered sobbing on the dirt floor of the well, and the terrified, baffled look on her mother's face. Slept in the well for _days_ after that, praying to God she would wake up on the other side.

What followed was an intense feeling of guilt. She begged whatever God would listen to send her back, but when the grief stupor finally wore off, all she could think of was her mother, and the look on her face, pinched with worry as she desperately tried to get her inside. Her sweet mother, who had lost so much herself already. How could she have wished for a life where she would never see her again? Or Souta, or her grandfather? They waited for three days when the well disappeared, frightened that something had happened to her, that she would never come back. How could she want that for them, _beg_ to be ripped from their lives? The guilt ate her alive, and so she sobbed some more, for herself this time. For the horrible things that she wished for, and for the people she would never get back.

She was facedown in the ancient dirt when Souta came and pleaded with her to come out. Kagome took one look at his pale face, bruised with dark circles, and she knew it was over. She had hurt her family enough.

It was final, her friends were gone.

He was gone.

She took Souta's hand, and crawled out of the well.

* * *

Inuyasha's body was shaking. The sensation was bizarre, because it stemmed from genuine fear. It had been so long since he was truly afraid.

His toes curled over the edge of the cliff, and he waited. The sky was a brilliant, soft pink, and it reminded him so much of Kagome that he lost his breath.

Behind him were the graves of Sango and Miroku's last living grandchildren, now dead of old age. The last humans on this earth to know him, even at all.

Over two hundred years had passed since the well closed. He watched as all of his human companions grew gray with age and died. He found himself surrounded by more of them than he ever imagined possible, and he knew Kagome was to blame.

He was angry with her now, though. She made him open up to his friends, and taught him how to make new ones, and all it did was give him more people to lose.

But they were all gone now, Kagome, and Sango, and Miroku.

And soon, he would be too.

As the moon crested the horizon he breathed a sigh of relief. He did not watch as his claws disappeared, instead, he stared at the moon. Somehow, after all this time, it was the same moon they sat under two centuries ago.

It was indifferent to his imprisonment on earth.

He let the moonlight bathe his face as the last traces of his demon heritage left him, and took a deep breath.

 _Finally._


	2. Chapter 2

Inuyasha climbed the shrine steps with reverent feet. When the well first closed, the tree had become his home, but he hadn't been back in decades. As he reached the top, he was struck by how familiar the scene was. It looked almost exactly the same as it had before.

He sought out the ancient tree, drawn to its enormity, and settled himself within the roots. If he closed his eyes he could almost imagine Kagome were with him. He had no idea what year she had been born in, but if current fashion was any indication, it wasn't this decade.

"Can I help you, sir?"

Inuyasha was on his feet in seconds, and only careful restraint kept him from attacking on instinct. As it was, he had already frightened the man with his speed alone.

"Sorry," Inuyasha started, "I was just paying my respects to the Goshinboku."

"Very well. My name is Higurashi Futoshi, but if you need anything, my son Kenzo will be around. Please feel free to explore the Shrine."

Inuyasha bowed to him, "Thank you."

He attempted to tamp down the excitement he felt just from hearing her surname. Kagome's family had been the caretakers of the shrine for generations, of course they would share a surname. It would help if he knew just _how_ much of an ancestor these men were to Kagome.

He decided to wander the grounds, and was both relieved and disappointed to see that the main house looked different from Kagome's time. He knew he was at least a few decades from her birth, and seeing her home as he remembered it would be difficult. It also reminded him he had years to go before he would see her again.

His feet carried him to the wellhouse, almost of their own will. As he slid the door back, he caught sight of what must have been Kenzo.

"Hello, can I help you?" The boy asked. He couldn't have been more than sixteen, but for some reason, his scent was vaguely familiar. Inuyasha studied his face for much longer than was respectful before he finally made the connection.

This was Kagome's grandfather.

He wanted to laugh and cry all at once, overjoyed that he had finally entered the right century, crushed by the knowledge that he had at least six more decades, rather than the two or three he had been wishing for.

"Sir? Are you alright?"

He shook his head, "Yes, I'm sorry. It's just been many years since I've been here."

Kenzo gave him an odd look, and Inuyasha realized a moment too late that to humans he only looked to be in his late twenties, and his illusion barrier made him seem even younger. He probably sounded like a moron.

"Well… let me know if I can help you with anything." Kenzo said. Inuyasha grunted and offered him a smile. Once Kenzo left, Inuyasha ran his hand along the edge of the well.

He was still too early.

* * *

Kagome's graduation was today. She knew she should be happy, at one point she'd have been happy simply passing her grade year, given that she was never in class. But for some reason, she felt like crying. Graduation meant going away to college, getting a real job, becoming an adult.

Moving on from childhood things.

There would be no more time for pining over Inuyasha for Adult Kagome.

Nevertheless, she got up, and curled her hair, even put on a little makeup, and put on her uniform for the last time.

Mama had breakfast ready for her, with all her favorites. She couldn't help but laugh at how Inuyasha's nose would have crinkled at the smell of so many "spicy" foods.

"Good morning, Kagome! Are you excited?" Her mother chirped from the stove.

"Of course, and thank you for the big breakfast, Mama."

"Well you can't be hungry on such a special occasion! Besides, it will probably be a long day for you."

Kagome had a feeling her mother was right. It was going to be a very long day.

Her friends chattered excitedly on either side of her, they were all waiting to be led into the gym for the ceremony. She tried to follow their conversation, but her heart wasn't in it. High school seemed like such a small achievement in light of what she had already done in her life. How had it been three years since she floated in inky blackness for days to destroy to jewel? How had she lived this mundane life all this time?

"Kagome? We're moving." Ayumi said as she poked her side and gestured to the large gap between them and the group ahead of them.

"Oh! Sorry, daydreaming over here." She said.

"Are you thinking about college? You must be so excited to be going to Kyoto University, it's such a great school!" Eri said, and Kagome took the easy cover.

"Yes! I'm excited to live in a new city, but I'm going to miss my family a lot." She hoped that would explain the melancholy look on her face.

"You couldn't find somewhere closer to home?"

Kagome shook her head. "None that had the major I wanted." Feudal specific history classes were apparently not that common. And she needed desperately to distance herself from the shrine and every memory that came with it.

"Attention!" The principal called out, "Please line up according to your class behind your homeroom teachers, they will lead you in."

"This is it!" Yuka whispered excitedly.

Kagome took a deep breath and followed her friends into the gymnasium. This was it.


	3. Chapter 3

Kagome's bedroom had been reduced to Spartan standards, just a bed, a dresser, and a desk. Everything was packed carefully into bins strapped to the roof of her mother's car, and she couldn't help but feel forlorn. It was really over.

She'd asked her mother for a few extra minutes to herself before they left, which seemed like an awful idea now.

 _He'll think I abandoned him._

Ridiculous nonsense, she knew. There was no way he knew where she was. Besides, he was probably long dead. She'd never thought to ask about his lifespan then.

She told herself these things sometimes, to understand the wretched ache in her stomach every time she thought about his absence. Where was he? Why hadn't he found her yet? He must be dead, she tells herself, not that it relieves the ache any.

She forces herself to turn away from her window, and the image of him perched on the sill.

It was time to go.

Kagome sat on her new futon and surveyed her work. It had taken her six hours to unpack every item she owned and arrange them to her liking. It was the first fun she'd had in months, maybe years if she was being honest. She loved decorating.

But she was finished now, and the forlorn feeling had crept back into her mind.

She was just going to have to get over it. He hadn't found his way back to her, and she had plenty of plausible reasons. First, he could be dead. There was a five hundred year difference, and she had no idea how long a half-demon's lifespan was. He could have been killed in combat, especially since he was a reckless idiot.

He could have given up. She knew what it was like to wait three years, God only knows what it must have been like to wait one hundred, then two, three. If he even waited that long.

Either way, she didn't know, and she had no way of finding out.

So now, she sat on her new bed in her new apartment, trying to force herself to be excited about the first day of classes. All she could do was picture her old room, filled with books and pillows and posters and the smell of Inuyasha.

It was unhealthy at this point, she knew. To obsess over anyone for three years was crazy, let alone someone who would seem like a figment of her imagination were she to ever share her story. Maybe it was the jagged edges left behind by their unexpected separation. There was no clean goodbye, no decision to leave at all, really. So she was left with so many questions, and so much time to over think.

It's how she convinced herself to walk to the tea shop around the corner, even if it meant reading her book on a stiff wooden chair instead of in her bed. She needed to see other people, even if she wasn't quite ready to talk to them.

* * *

Scouring the birth announcements had become his favorite pastime. He had seen several Kagomes, but none of them were her.

He wasn't entirely sure why he was even looking. He knew he couldn't reveal himself until after his past self was sealed from this era. He had no idea how things would change if he suddenly appeared in her life before she discovered the bone eater's well.

Nevertheless, he devoted himself to the daily newspaper. He knew he was close to her birth. He used to get such butterflies in his stomach every time he picked up a paper, but the reaction had dulled over time. Now, he just scanned the names, with an ease and speed that made him swell with pride. Learning to read had been no small feat for him, considering he refused to let anyone teach him. Kagome would be so proud of him if she knew.

He had gotten so good at scanning quickly that he almost missed it. He had taken to half-heartedly browsing the rest of the newspapers and was taking a sip of his coffee when her last name caught his eye.

It was her parents' wedding announcement.

He was so fucking close.

For the first time in centuries, he really thought he was going to cry. He was so close to her, but he still wasn't there.

And honestly, what would he do when she _was_ born? How much harder would it be when he could see her, hear her, knowing that he was still years too early, that this Kagome had no knowledge of him or their time together?

Even now, he didn't think he could pick up right where they left off. For one thing, times were drastically different. His illusion made him look to be around twenty-five. He'd put no thought into her age at all before. Fifteen was more than acceptable in the feudal era, she was practically middle-aged. Now, though? She would be considered a child.

So he would wait until she turned eighteen, and then he would find her.

What could three more years do, after waiting for five hundred?


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello to the three people that actually read this, I was overcome with inspiration for once and banged this out in one sitting. I think I'm just sad that I actually graduated from college and don't get to go back this semester. Anyway. This is a Kagome only chapter, and I think I'm going to keep it her POV from now on. Got to keep things interesting! I promise I will try to update more often, but please don't get discouraged if I don't post for a long period of time. I'm awful at making deadlines, especially when they are my own.**

 **Thank you for reading and reviewing (you know who you are!), it truly means so much to me.**

Kagome was a doer. She hated falling behind in anything, and without the well or Inuyasha to distract her, she was determined to get top marks her first semester.

It's how she found herself in the basement of the library at 1:30 in the morning on a Tuesday, cramming for her lit test the next day. She was awful at writing under pressure, and the professor only gave the class forty-five minutes to finish the essay.

She had been down there for hours, mostly because it had no windows and few people ever went down there. Both were distractions she couldn't afford at this point.

Her friend Alex poked her head around the wall of the study cube.

"Hey," she said, "You ready to walk back?"

Kagome dropped her head down onto her notes.

"It's useless. I'm never going to remember all of this." Kagome whined.

"Good a time as any to quit then," Alex returned with a smile. "Besides, the library closes in a half hour anyway. I'm going to do one more sweep and then I'm off for the night."

Alex was an American exchange student who worked in the library as part of her work-study. She often checked in on Kagome, because she was kind, but also to make sure Kagome didn't pass away in her piles of notes and books.

Kagome nodded at Alex, who continued on in her sweep of the building, letting the last few stragglers know the library would be closing soon.

She gathered her things together and shoved them into her bag, too tired to be bothered by the fact that it wasn't neatly organized. Alex met her by the main door just as Kagome was finishing a huge yawn.

"Don't do that," Alex said with a yawn of her own, "Those are contagious."

Kagome smiled and shook her head as they walked toward the bus stop. It was unseasonably cold outside for early November, and their breath clouded in front of them. The two huddled together while they waited for the last bus, and puffed a sigh of relief once it finally showed up.

"Text me when you get home?" Alex asked as she stepped off the bus at her stop.

"I will," Kagome promised, and waved goodbye.

* * *

Kagome was drunk. It was a strange sensation, she had to admit. Alex kept mentioning food, and while Kagome normally never ate after dinner, she was dying for a bag of potato chips. A few of her friends from classes over her four years at KU stopped by to say hello and congratulations, and occasionally to do a hearty toast, depending on how much they had to drink.

They were all celebrating the end of the weird time, as she had taken to calling it. No longer a child, but certainly not an adult.

She chuckled to herself, thinking back to her high school graduation, how she thought that she would be the new, "Adult Kagome" once she left home. She didn't know what she was, but she certainly wasn't Adult Kagome.

In the morning, her mother was coming to pick up her and all of her belongings, and she was going back to exactly where she was when she thought everything was going to be different. Only she knew better this time.

"Nothing is different," she said, and Alex sent her a mock concerned look.

"Are you having a conversation with yourself?" Alex asked with a laugh. "Of course things are different. We are now college graduates! Adult Kagome is going to go home and find a job in Tokyo and be super successful."

"I totally just said all of that stuff out loud, didn't I?" Kagome asked, mortified.

"Sure did," Alex replied, "But I'm drunk too, so no need to be embarrassed."

She gave Kagome one of her little half hugs, a one-armed squeeze on her shoulder that always made her feel better.

Alex gave her a sly look. "So, shots?"

Two hours later, Kagome was sitting on the floor in her living room munching on potato chips and drinking tea. She found that packing was much more fun drunk. She found a mate for every item in her small home, and the mates _had_ to go in the box together, otherwise they would get lonely. She had finally made it into her kitchen when she discovered she had an odd number of silverware, and one lonely teaspoon didn't have a mate.

This is how Kagome discovered she is an emotional drunk. The teaspoon didn't have a mate, and that was sad, which made Kagome sad, which made Kagome start thinking about the fact that she didn't have her own mate, which made Kagome even more sad, which made Kagome remember that she really wanted potato chips earlier that night, and she was pretty sure she still had a bag left in the pantry, but then the potato chips were salty and she didn't have anything to drink so she had to make tea and-

"Kagome."

Kagome was pretty sure her sinuses were filled with shards of glass.

"Kagome, sweetheart, wake up." Her mother's soft voice filtered through her glass-filled head to her ears, and she attempted to crack an eye open. Her mother was in fact present, and not a mirage caused by the desert in Kagome's mouth.

"Long night?" Her mother asked, and Kagome realized that her mother was upside down.

Kagome grunted, and then realized that it was _she_ , not her mother, who was upside down. A quick survey of her immediate surroundings revealed several empty bags of chips and an entire kettle filled with cold tea on her living room floor. She had fallen asleep on her back, with her head hanging off the edge of the futon.

Kagome hauled herself into an upright position, and her mother sat beside her.

"Celebrate a little too hard?" She asked.

Kagome tried to laugh, but she found herself tearing up instead.

Her voice was tear soaked when she finally spoke. "I miss him so much sometimes, mom."

Kagome's mother sighed and stroked her hair. "I understand," she said, "I feel the same way about your dad sometimes."


	5. Chapter 5

**If there are still people reading this, hello! It is I, your garbage heap of an author who updates with almost hysterical irregularity. I apologize, I too wish I was not like this.** ** _But but but_** **if you do still cling to a shred of interest in my alternate ending universe here then I hope you will enjoy this short but sweet chapter that will lead to bigger and better things for our main characters. I appreciate all comments, so feel free to leave a comment if you like what you've read so far because it is out of guilt for the few who took time out of their day to leave a review that I was able to motivate myself to revisit this story. So without further ranting, here is this thing I wrote.**

Kagome's new apartment was _finally_ ready. She had been waiting to move in for weeks, but a mistake during construction postponed her move-in day. It was a brand new building, going up right near the museum where she worked, and the timing had worked out perfectly with the end of her previous lease.

Perfectly, that is, until the construction mistake.

She had been staying with her mother at the shrine for about a month, waiting for the okay to retrieve all of her boxes from the storage unit. She didn't mind staying with her mother, especially after her grandfather passed away. With Souta finishing his last year of college, her mother needed some help around the shrine.

She didn't mind staying with her mother, but that didn't mean she liked staying at the shrine.

Her mother had offered her grandfather's room when Kagome first called, knowing that her old bedroom brought back difficult memories.

Those memories were not enough to keep her out of her old room, though. The other would always be her grandfather's room, and she couldn't bring herself to take it over.

 _Souta will be home from school in a few weeks._ She told herself, _He can help mama._

She still felt a little guilty when her mom kissed her cheek and handed her a packed lunch to get her through the first half of move-in day.

"I'll be back around supper time, mama."

"Have a good day," she said with a smile, "Call if you need help."

Ayumi's boyfriend was the size of an industrial refrigerator. Kagome watched in awe as he hefted her futon over his shoulder and carried it up the stairs of her building. She gave Ayumi a wide-eyed look, and her friend had the gall to wink.

"He's great with his hands," she said, and the two dissolved into a fit of giggles.

"Am I going to have to move everything in myself, or are you two gonna do something?"

The giggling continued.

* * *

She looked gorgeous with her hair up, the little pieces falling around her face. She had grown her bangs out, and she stood about three inches taller. Her waist had narrowed, her hips filled out, and her eyes were kohl-lined, making the clear blue intensely bright. His breath hitched in his throat as they slowly lifted to his own.

She had been carrying groceries up the stairs of her apartment building when he finally saw an opportunity to talk with her. His illusion barrier rounded his ears, turned his hair black, and made his eyes look hazel. It was close to his human form, but he knew that to her, he would quite different. He had aged so much in her absence, in both appearance and in personality, but he could see she had as well. The biggest change seemed to be the guarded look that assessed him from afar, her expression closed off in a way it had never been for him before. Several moments passed before she took a hesitant step forward.

"Do I know you?" She asked, setting her groceries on the ground. Her voice betrayed what her face hid, she was fighting the answer with every fiber of her being.

"You knew me a long time ago." He said, and though his voice had lost the last of its boyish tone and given way to the deep rumble of his brother and father, he knew that she recognized him.

"I don't understand...how is this possible? I thought you were-"

"Dead?" He asked. "I tried, believe it or not. But I've somehow managed to make it here, five hundred years later."

They were still standing almost ten feet apart, and Kagome had begun to gather her groceries at an alarming speed. He was about to help her with her bags when she fixed him with a look of such animal ferocity that all he could do was freeze. "Don't touch my things," she ground out before hustling to her door.

"Kagome, please."

She flinched.

"Don't come here again." She said, and he listened to her slam the door, and slide the bolt into place.

Well.

He fucked that up.


End file.
